Monday Night Pizza

November 19th, 2007

I know the thought of making your own pizza from scratch, dough included, on a Monday night is probably exhausting in itself, but honestly this was as quick as anything to make, and you’ll feel so virtuous for making your own rather than picking up the phone to the local pizza delivery service.

The sauce will take a good 20 minutes or so, so start that off first. You just need to sauté a crushed garlic clove and shallot in a little olive oil until starting to soften, then add in a teaspoon of sugar and a 400g tin of tomatoes. I used tinned cherry tomatoes for a change, but you could use chopped or even whole plum tomatoes and just chop them down in the saucepan as they cook. You can also add a squirt of tomato puree to if you like, to deepen the flavour. Let the sauce simmer until nicely thickened. You can either sieve the sauce as I did, or use it as it is.

While the sauce is cooking make your pizza dough. This recipe from the very lovely James Martin is so quick and easy – it contains no yeast so you don’t need to prove it.

Once the dough is rolled out smother it in the tomato sauce and then generously scattered over grated mozzarella and slices of cooked chorizo (or whatever topping you fancy or is to hand). Cook at 220c for 12-15 minutes.

Not only was the pizza really tasty and totally home made, but I made it and was eating it in less time than it would have taken for a take away pizza to arrive. How great is that?